Driverless Cars - Implications for Travel Behavior

Several states have already passed legislation allowing these vehicles to travel on public roadways, and there is considerable debate regarding the various ways in which such vehicles could transform our lifestyles.

This panel will discuss the types of impacts that autonomous vehicles may have on people’s activity-travel patterns, location choices, and vehicle ownership. We will discuss the developing vision for transportation models of the future that are responsive to the presence of driverless vehicles, and capture the full range of short, medium, and long-term changes in behavior.

This research was prepared by Chandra Bhat, Director of Transportation Research at the University of Texas, and Ram Pendyala of Arizona State University.

Questions

Will autonomous transportation encourage people to purchase larger cars?

Will autonomous vehicles make us more willing to live further away from work?

How will autonomous transportation impact our daily activity choices?

What would happen to public transportation as we know it today? How will it change/morph?